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Talk:SorryNotSorry/@comment-3284502-20160426230845
So, I don't know how often you guys read webcomics, but I've seen recommendations for amazing shows on here, and I've been into this one for a while, so without further ado... Ten Reasons You Should Be Reading Dumbing of Age '''10) The comment section is slightly less shitty than the majority of internet: '''While the comments still have dismissive, abuse apologizing, sexist/racist/homophobic/transphobic assholes every once in a while, the other commenters, by and large, do not put up with it. There's a lot of shutting down of jerks and when that is not feasible, the author is not afraid to go "Nope. Get the fuck out" and delete or ban these people. The comments usually contain a lot of good discussion, analysis....and yeah, juvenile jokes. XD While some days are legitimately awful, there's usually more good in the comments than bad. '''9) You don't need to be familiar with past works: '''While the author has written a few webcomics before this with all the characters featured, this strip is standalone. The author basically went "Hmm, I miss writing these guys. Ooh! I know! I'll do an AU where they're all in college together, minus the sci-fi elements and superpowers and shit. It'll be fun." So, basically, no continuity familiarity necessary! You can just jump right in and read it. You don't need to know the other comics - in fact, it's probably better not to read the other comics in order to "understand" Dumbing of Age - it'll just be confusing because these are very different versions of the same characters. '''8) It's super easy to read: '''Seriously, these strips are usually like 5-6 panels long and take two seconds to read. You can catch up in a couple of days if you have a free weekend. '''7) It updates daily: '''LBR, nobody likes waiting for their favourite shows/series to release new stuff. With this comic, you just have to wait until tomorrow. New shit every day. There's also a 3 month buffer, so if the author doesn't draw new strips or gets hit by a bus or something, we still have 3 months of comics to go. '''6) There's something for everyone: '''Seriously, everyone. There's romance, friendship, slice of life drama and comedy, angst, and even action and adventure in form of the campus vigilante. ....Yes, there's a superhero, come on guys, this is me. Of course there's a goddamn superhero. '''5) The art is adorable: '''Seriously, the art style is super cute. It's cartoony, yes, but the cute kind of cartoony where everyone is expressive and semi-detailed. The character's faces will be the death of me. '''4) The plots are realistic and complex: '''All of the storylines have connections and details that continue through the whole thing. Whether it's a lesson someone continues to struggle with, a romance or friendship continuing (or struggling) or a past trauma the characters went through still affecting them, there's a lot of continuity here. Everyone reacts the way someone with their personality and circumstances could, and these keep interlocking to cause problems for them. For example, two different characters went through emotional abuse in their early years and they continue to clash because of the way they coped with it. '''3) The characters are amazing: '''Every character has good and bad traits and have their own merits that make them likeable...or failing that, at least sympathetic. ...Well, almost every character. Some people (usually bigots) are just flat out awful. But the characters are the meat of this story tbh. The story is about Joyce, a fundamentalist Christian attending Indiana University and growing up, including confronting problematic parts of her culture and faith. She's based on the author and how he grew up - while some of the things in the strip are out there, they are what the author grew up believing. And sometimes those things are batshit. It also centers around her best friend, Dorothy, an Atheist aiming to become President one day, her childhood best friend Becky, who was kicked out of her home and nearly sent to conversion therapy for being a lesbian, and a few other fun characters. '''2) Diversity is a priority: '''The cast is filled with POC, LGBT characters, and the majority of the protagonists are ladies. This is treated as a strength, not a weakness. They all have complex personalities and problems, and not all of them have to do with their POC/LGBT-ness. The author also refuses to let people complain about diversity and its place in his work. As in, when someone complained about diversity in another comic of his, and told him he "couldn't add diversity for the sake of it" he added a Filipino girl to his main cast out of spite and she ended up being awesome. He's remarkably aware of issues surrounding POC and women, particularly. He's gone on record saying he's not going to punish Dorothy for her ambition or have a black woman 'see racism where there isn't any' (yes because how dare said character call her parent's bigotry for what it is) and that he would rather apply comic book physics than kill off a gay character for the sake of angst. I know you guys all love representation, so I'd recommend taking a look for this reason alone. '''1) It goes there in ways Degrassi could never even HOPE to match: '''The issues this comic tackles are PHENOMENAL. We’re talking sexism, growing up away from faith (the main character is an autobiographical representation of the author growing away from his fundie roots), racism in mixed families (specifically the way certain behaviour is attributed to an ethnicity, like “acting black” meaning acting violent, rule breaking, etc.), abuse, rape, depression, alcoholism, sexuality, and in the previous storyline, not only was there the transphobia going on, it also has insecurities in relationships among other issues. This storyline was dealing with the fallout of an incident involving a gun, and a bunch of female characters were crushed by pressures around them (including Carla, a trans girl) and so now the story was exploring pressure to be “that perfect girl” (as in “that perfect girl is GONE”) and a bunch of people felt the titular perfect girl was supposed to be Carla (who is a jokester and an asshole - in a funny, harmless troll kind of way - but gets a lot of blowback about being trans because of it).It was positively ON POINT about how damaging it is to be forced into the “good girl”/“perfect” mold. And this wasn't the only storyline to hit it out of the park either. The story where the parents visit dealt with faith, passive aggression, exclusion, abuse, lying, mental health, alcoholism, parental death, and the after effects of neglect, and again, parental racism/internalized racism. It even managed to get in a bit about hair politics. The storylines in this thing are crammed to the brim with everything the author can squeeze out of his characters - and since his characters are immature, insecure 18 year olds, there's a LOT he can squeeze out of them. So, if you guys are interested, drop a comment. I'll tell you what character(s) I think you'll love (or at least relate to). And if I managed to convince you, the story starts here: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/comic/book-1/01-move-in-day/home/